


All This (And Love Too)

by Atlas_M_33



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Study, Falling In Love, Fluff, Introspection, M/M, Near Death Experiences, Pining, Post-Canon, The Gate of Truth, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-15 22:54:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28821039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Atlas_M_33/pseuds/Atlas_M_33
Summary: There are five things that Roy Mustang knows about being in love with Edward Elric, and one that he doesn’t.These are all things that Roy considers, in the split second that follows the pull of a trigger. An entire world’s worth of small, inconsequential things that he’s built his life around, that he wouldn’t know how to carry on without. It’s thrilling and terrifying to realize all at once that Edward Elric is the sun around which his world turns, the star by which he measures true north.
Relationships: Edward Elric/Roy Mustang
Comments: 8
Kudos: 139





	All This (And Love Too)

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is the result of me desperately craving a story about Ed as something golden that inspires devotion in the people who love him. Did I also use this fic as a dumping ground for all the AU snippets I’ve dreamt up but never had the motivation to finish? Maybe, but you can’t prove jack shit. As with every other blatantly self indulgent piece of content I’ve ever produced, I wrote this for me but I guess y’all can read it too.
> 
> Poem in bold taken from: https://www.google.com/amp/s/bedlamsbard.tumblr.com/post/99199496248/first-he-touches-you-and-you-light-on-fire-your/amp
> 
> Title from Scheherazade by Richard Siken

**First: He touches you and you light on fire. Your wrist blazes where his fingers meet your skin. The burns don’t show, but it’s hard to breathe with ash in your lungs. It’s so hard to breathe. You’re suffocating daily.**

It starts on a mission. 

Roy hasn’t been out of the office for work in months, so when Ed crashes through like a whirlwind asking for alchemical backup because Al is out of town and Roy is _The only idiot in this city that inches in the direction of competence, don’t even get me started on the morons in my department,_ he leaps at the chance. He sweeps from the room, his coat snapping dramatically behind him just the way he secretly practiced. He looks back just in time to see the amused quirk of Hawkeye’s eyebrow before her face smoothes back out into professional disinterest as the door clicks shut behind them.

 _There’s an idiot on the loose that’s trying to replicate your array, but he’s a total rookie. I’m more worried that he’s going to blow himself up than anything else to be honest._ The idea of his array in someone else’s hands is terrifying, but Ed’s a genius, the best alchemist Amestris has ever seen even without the ability to activate circles, so Roy trusts him to know what he’s talking about. They head towards the warehouse district, checking out buildings that match the others used as testing grounds over the past few weeks, because _This guy’s a total freaking drama queen, I bet that’s why he decided to copy you, it’s practically your specialty._

A few steps into their third building Ed goes silent, reaching out and fisting his hand in Roy’s sleeve, pointing at the roof access door. It only takes him a moment to figure out what caught Ed’s attention. The door is filthy, rusted and so busted up that the only thing giving away it’s recent use is the bright shine of alchemically restored hinges. 

Ed smirks, mouths the words _total amateur,_ and starts moving in the direction of the door much more quietly than Roy was expecting. They creep up the stairs together, Ed setting a hand on the knob and waiting for Roy’s nod to yank it open. 

He bursts onto the roof, fingers poised to snap just in case the alchemist they’re chasing is already up here. Ed follows right behind him, holding a wicked looking knife that Roy has no doubt he knows how to use. The roof looks empty though, so Roy turns his focus to the circle drawn out in chalk on the weathered concrete. 

_He’s just a rookie_ Ed had said, but this array is decently advanced. It still isn’t anywhere close to being able to do what Roy’s does with a snap of his fingers, but it’s functional enough to cause damage if it were to go off at the wrong time. At his side Ed points to one of the symbols along the edge and snickers, _He’s using the red lion, what a-_

Ed cuts himself off suddenly, his eyes darting around the circle with renewed interest before they go wide. _Ah shit, we have to go!_ He grabs Roy’s arm and turns for the door before he freezes. Roy looks over his shoulder and sees a tall, dark haired man diving for the edge of the array. 

He reacts without thinking because Ed’s _right,_ he _always_ is, this circle’s unstable and if it goes off with them on top of it there won’t be enough of them left for Hawkeye to glare at disappointedly. 

He clicks his fingers together, trying for a reaction that’s less _fire_ and more _force,_ trying to push the other alchemist away from the chalk lines he’s reaching for. 

The resulting explosion does exactly what he was aiming for, pushing their quarry back hard enough to knock the wind out of him and leave him stunned. Unfortunately he was a little _too_ zealous with his calculations, and the blast is also strong enough to knock Roy over the edge of the roof. 

For the split second that he’s falling it feels exactly like getting sucked through the Gate, and his heart pounds and-

his shoulder wrenches with the suddenness of his stop and Roy looks up and he sees-

Edward Elric, hanging over the edge, his ribs wedged against the short concrete wall in a way that will no doubt leave them streaked with purple for days. He’s got both of his hands wrapped around Roy’s wrist, and for a moment, even though he’s dangling three stories above the ground and he should probably have other priorities, the only thing that Roy can do is marvel at the way that Ed’s hands feel. Two flesh hands, strong and calloused and each of them a miracle for a different reason. Ed’s eyes are wild, his face twisted with effort, and Roy can’t do anything but look on with awe.

He feels himself getting pulled slowly upwards, and his brain finally kicks into gear enough to help, and a few seconds later Ed is hauling him back up over the edge in an exact juxtaposition of the way he just drop kicked Roy’s heart right off a metaphorical cliff.

They lay sprawled on their backs on the roof, both of them panting for air, and Roy looks over just as Ed does the same. Their eyes meet, and there’s a moment of silence before Ed starts laughing, and then neither of them can stop, and they lay there on the roof cackling over the groans of the idiot they’d chased up here and-

 _Oh,_ Roy thinks. _Oh no._

Roy knows fire intimately. He knows the ways it moves and spreads and scars. This is something different. This is something new. 

The bruise ringing his wrist doesn’t heal for weeks, and even after it’s faded to nothing more than a memory Roy can feel the rasp of Ed’s palms against the skin, scorched into his mind like a brand, tightening around his heart like a vise.

* * *

**Second: It hurts to watch him. He shines. He's brighter than the sun, he’s too beautiful for your eyes. It’s hard to look at him. It’s even harder to look away from him. You’re going blind.**

Edward sits on the couch in Roy’s office and the sunlight streams through his hair, turning it to waves of gold. He’d dropped himself onto the cushions carelessly, limbs spread akimbo because he doesn’t realize that every breath he takes, every brush of his eyelashes against his cheeks, every amused _Hmm_ when he reads something in the file he’s working on that he doesn’t agree with, drags Roy deeper into his orbit.

Sometimes there are days when Roy forgets how close he came to losing his sight forever, that the last thing he saw was almost the horrifying blankness of the Gate and its Watcher, and then this will happen:

Edward Elric will decide to drop by his office. He will grace the unworthy walls of Central Command with his presence. He will pass through the corner of Roy’s vision and suddenly Roy will remember all over again that he only has this because of a miracle and a doctor who has just as many sins to atone for as he does.

Roy Mustang has never believed in luck, but he has no other explanation for why else he’d be allowed to see this:

Edward Elric, grown into his skin, filling up every ounce of space in a room like it’s his right. Edward Elric strolling down the corridors and drawing every eye because his presence is as beautiful as he is. Edward Elric turning up at Madam Christmas’ bar for drinks with the team on a Friday, his hair pulled up into a high tail that falls halfway down his back and all but forces every passing patron to notice how broad his shoulders have become. 

The light that spills into Roy’s office towards the end of the day is a warm orange hue that would flatter anyone but what it does to the former Fullmetal Alchemist is nothing short of miraculous, casting him in tones of copper and bronze. Ed is half of what’s left in the world of the Kingdom of Xerxes and it shows in every curve and line of him. Roy thinks back to the stories he’s read, the lore sprinkled throughout the old texts, the tales passed down the generations:

_A city straight out of a fairytale. A city where the streets and the people were both made of gold._

Roy turns back to the stack of papers that still need his signature, but even out of view he’s viscerally aware of the space that Ed occupies. A page turns, a steel plate clinks, a halo of sunlight settles in Roy’s peripheral vision like it’s found a new star to call home. 

The document in front of him is a stupid formality, a piece of paper that officially installs Ed as the head of the alchemical consultation department in the wake of his predecessor’s arrest for attempted murder and illegal alchemical experimentation, among other things. Ed’s practically been running the department since he joined it anyway, his reputation placing him in high demand with the brass. Ed is infinitely more deserving of the official title than the man who tried to incinerate them over a stupid grudge and some wounded pride. 

He signs the form a little more smugly than strictly necessary, and diligently avoids thinking about the phantom ache behind his eyes that never really goes away. 

It wouldn’t be so bad in the dark, Roy thinks to himself late that night, as long as Ed was there to light up the room in all the ways he does just by existing. 

* * *

**Third: Your ears are tuned to his voice. You could pick him out in a sea of thousands. His voice makes pretty singers who sing pretty songs sound dull. His voice makes everything else sound ugly.**

He’s surrounded by the noise of the crowd and the trains, and Roy’s picked people up from the station before but it never gets any less nerve wracking. The press of people around him, the way he feels exposed, vulnerable, like someone’s breathing down his neck, watching his every move, waiting for him to inch out just a little further into the open. He’s got crosshairs focused on the spot between his shoulders and it’s not Riza behind the gun-

_Oi! Bastard!_

Ed’s voice breaks through the panic flooding his brain, clearing out the fog in an instant as a head of gold bobs away from the train and towards Roy’s spot against the wall. Ed’s pushing his way past people and carts, using his elbows and suitcase to his advantage as he presses closer and closer. He’s in his brown travel coat this time, the one he wears between missions when he wants to slip through places unnoticed, as if he ever could. 

Roy doesn’t begrudge him the choice. He, more than anyone else, understands the weight that a garment can carry. His gloves are a constant reminder, a symbol to different people for different reasons, and Ed’s red coat is almost the same. Everyone in Amestris, and a fair few of her neighboring countries, know the meaning of those colors and that crest, and it gives Ed an edge in arguments, lends weight to his authority beyond what _any_ of their current State Alchemists could hope to garner even though he hasn’t worn the watch in nearly five years. 

Roy is standing at the center of a small clearing afforded to him by virtue of his uniform, a bright blue signal to the civilians around him. Ed finally makes it through the crowd, stumbling into his little bubble with a grin on his face and already launching into an idea he had for an array. 

Ed’s chatter buoys them all the way back to the car, but he wraps up his explanation just as Roy closes his door behind him, making very sure that his coat won’t get caught. He rounds the car as quickly as he can, tumbling himself into the driver’s seat and pulling into traffic. Only a moment has passed but the silence stretches forever in Roy’s mind, an abyss eeking towards him that he can’t avoid-

Then Ed starts speaking again, and all's right with the world. _I finally got the chance to talk to the guys in East City, ask if they’d gotten anything out of the wack job who tried to off us._

Roy hums, keeping his eyes on the road even as every other molecule of his being strains to take in Ed’s every word. _And? What did they say?_

 _Apparently,_ Ed is slouching in the front seat as much as the belt will allow, and he rolls his eyes hard enough that Roy can practically feel his own throb in sympathy. _He wanted to prove me wrong about how shitty his arrays were, but he wasn’t expecting you to be there with me when I showed up, or for me to recognize his work before he got the chance to set it off. We tracked down the rest of his research but he keeps shrieking about his brother, so we might need to keep an eye out for that._

 _Well,_ Roy replies, _If they’re anything alike we won’t have to worry too hard that he’ll be competent in his approach._

Ed’s laugh is like a bell, or a sunset, or any other beautiful thing that you hold in your mind as an inalienable truth of the world, and Roy’s very nearly too absorbed in his awe to notice they’ve arrived at their destination. 

He pulls to a stop right next to the sidewalk and Ed scrambles out in a flurry of motion, thanking Roy with a shout, calling over his shoulder that _I’ll drop the report at the office when it’s finished,_ and then-

The door of Ed’s building slams shut with a resounding bang that makes Roy flinch. His ears are ringing in the sudden quiet, and he knows, deep down, that it isn’t left over from the whistle of the trains. 

He pulls away from the curb and heads home while the quiet settles around him like an ill fitting coat. He doesn’t turn the radio on to fill the silence left in Ed’s wake. Somehow, it feels like an admission. 

* * *

**Fourth: The color of his eyes is deep enough to fall into. He is turning you into a clichéd love-wrecked being. You’re drowning, always sinking. Down, down, down.**

Ed’s eyes are like nothing Roy’s ever seen before. Alphonse’s may be similar, may be the closest anyone will ever get, but even his carry an underlying tint of something else that renders them a different color entirely.

 _Our mom had green eyes,_ Ed had said once, standing in Roy’s home office, looking at the photo of their team in its place on the mantle. _I was always jealous when we were younger, that he got to keep that part of her and I didn’t._

Roy doesn’t know how he’d even begin to say it, how he could ever lay out in simple words that he didn’t know he had a favorite color until Edward Elric came tearing back into his office after four years of silence, informing Roy that _I’m here to help you un-fuck this shit show, I just ran into your head alchemical consultant and he uses_ Waite’s symbology, _his array has the_ red lion _in it, just what kind of operation do you think you’re running here?_

He’d been incandescent and indignant, his face lit up as he swept through like a whirlwind. Looking back, Roy’s embarrassed at how long it took him to figure out that he’s completely gone on Ed. 

Now though, he knows. He’s fully aware of the fact that Ed’s eyes are sunlight through a glass of good whiskey, are the spark of a fire in his hearth after a long day, are the glow of the lamplight they share as they pour over a rare text, tucked away together in a hidden corner of Central Library. Ed’s eyes are a revelation and a benediction, and Roy feels giddy whenever they turn on him. 

He tamps it down, tries not to give away how his skin prickles under the stare Ed is leveling at him from the other side of the chess board that’s set up between them, and makes his move. 

Later, as he unlocks the front door and steps into his house, it’s not the feeling of being watched that nips at his heels and chases him all the way to the empty comfort of his bed, but the lack of it. He feels the absence of Ed’s watchful gaze like a paper cut: innocuous, incidental, non-fatal, but drawing his attention with every movement nonetheless. 

The clock on his bedside table ticks deafeningly, and Roy closes his eyes and dreams in shades of gold. 

* * *

**Fifth: You know him. You love him. Through a thousand lifetimes, across millions of stars, you’d find him, you’d never leave him. You love him, till death do you part.**

These are all things that Roy considers, in the split second between the pull of a trigger and the thump of a body hitting the ground. An entire world’s worth of small, inconsequential things that he’s built his life around, that he wouldn’t know how to carry on without. It’s thrilling and terrifying to realize all at once that Edward Elric is the sun around which his world turns, the star by which he measures true north. 

They’d been headed back towards Ed’s place from the library, and Roy was too caught up in their argument over the different ways to balance silver, too deeply invested in proving his point, too in love with the way the streetlights make the pink flush on Ed’s cheeks stand out, to notice that they were being followed. 

Together they turn down the alley that runs alongside the park. It’s the same path they take every time they do this which was _stupid,_ he should’ve _known_ _better_ because now there’s a man pointing a gun at them, screaming about how they ruined his brother’s life. 

Ed’s got his hands held out, palms open, trying to inch his way in front of Roy. _I know you’re mad at me,_ he says, _but leave him out of this, he’s got nothing to do with it,_ like he thinks there’s a snowball's chance in Xerxes that Roy would leave him here alone with the moron pointing a gun at them. 

Edward Elric is a genius with the knowledge of entire universes crammed into his head, but one of the few things he doesn’t seem to know is that Roy Mustang would do almost anything for him.

So.

Roy stands in an alley and watches as the brother of an alchemist they arrested months ago threatens Ed, and the man is only getting more irritated and Ed is still trying to get him to calm down and Roy wishes this was happening somewhere else, anywhere more open where he wouldn’t have to be worry about the downdraft or the way the wind being funneled by the alley would push his flames in directions he can’t control-

Unconsciously his hands have drifted towards his pocket and the guy jerks, starts shouting again, gestures violently with the hand holding the gun, and he must be even stupider than he looks because he squeezes the trigger and-

the gun- 

goes- 

off. 

Roy’s world goes white. 

_A set of black doors towering over him, casting a shadow that stretches as far as he can see and further. A white figure with a too wide smile full of too perfect teeth. A voice that sounds almost like Ed but_ wrong _telling him_ Not yet Flame, not quite yet-

_and then the Gate is swinging open and-_

_he falls._

Roy’s not having a good morning. Half of the presentation he needs for today’s meeting disappeared overnight, Kimblee hasn’t called him back about next quarter’s projection, and he still has a million things he has to finish before the weekend hits, but all of that fades away when the cute new barista manning the counter at his usual coffee shop smiles and asks for his name. A few moments later Roy’s handed a cup of the best damn coffee he’s ever had, and there’s a phone number scrawled across the sleeve above a playfully written _Next one's on me,_ and his day might just be looking up-

and-

Roy’s had a low grade nervous energy brewing in the pit of his stomach all day, but now that he’s actually standing on the Elric’s front porch he really does feel like he might throw up. He rings the doorbell anyway, and Mrs. Elric answers with a wide smile like today is any other day, waves him in and says _Oh Roy you look so handsome,_ turns to shout up the stairs at Ed that _Your young man is here, come down so I can take pictures before you leave!_ Roy isn’t sure what expression takes over his face when Ed comes into view, but it makes Mrs. Elric laugh and Ed blush, so he doesn’t really care. Ed’s mom is beaming as she arranges them by the fireplace, and they pose for what feels like a hundred pictures before they’re finally able to escape to Roy’s car. Ed cranks up the volume on the radio and sings along the whole way to the venue, and there’s nothing in the world that Roy would trade for this. Maybe he didn’t get accepted into the military college he wanted, but his second choice school offered him a full ride to study chemistry and he’s about to walk into his senior prom with the most beautiful boy in the world at his side, so who really cares what some stuffy military guy thinks-

and-

Edward Elric at sixteen was a wonder. Edward Elric at eighteen, crashing back into his life in the middle of an invasion from another world, feels more like a hallucination than anything else. Roy makes his way up to the machine flying over Liore, watches Ed grin viciously with fire reflected in his eyes and gets to feel the rush of performing impossible alchemy for the first time in _years,_ because Ed was always the best of them and it’s impossible to stand in his presence and not want to live up to his expectations. For the first time since a bullet ripped through one of his eyes Roy feels alive, but then the portal is closing and _both_ Elrics are gone, leaving him crouched in an underground city, alone again. He picks himself up, he gets his rank back, and he spends two years going through the motions, right up until the day that a ruckus outside his office precedes an automail foot kicking his door open hard enough to bounce it off the wall. Edward Elric at twenty is a miracle in human form, and he tears back into this world like a lightning strike, stalking right up to Roy and pulling him down into a kiss that reaches all the way into his soul and fixes something he thought would be broken for the rest of his life-

and-

Roy would’ve begged Riza to let him pet sit Black Hayate ages ago if he would’ve known that it would result in the leash in his hand getting wrapped around the ankles of the most gorgeous person he’s ever seen, sending them both tumbling into the grass. Roy looks up at the shocked face of the man who’s landed on top of him and watches in awe as a smile breaks across his face and he starts giggling-

and-

Roy’s a prince, a younger son who’s not in line for the throne but oh he _wants it._ Sir Elric is a knight from another kingdom who’s come to fight in the tourney, come to find a worthy liege to tie himself and his house to. He has a way of wielding a sword that looks more like dancing than fighting, more like an art than a battle, and yet every other contestant at the melee falls before him. Roy watches from his spot among his brothers as Edward is crowned the victor and given free reign to pledge his loyalty to a royal of his choosing. Nothing in the realm could have prepared Roy for the way his heart seizes when those golden eyes settle on him, or for the way it nearly bursts when a finely crafted sword is laid reverently at his feet-

and-

Gracia’s going into labor and Maes had called in a panic, torn between picking his daughter up from school and leaving his wife’s side so _of course_ Roy went to get her, he’s listed on the pickup sheet for _exactly_ this kind of situation. He gets there and Elysia’s teacher is a shock of pure sunshine against the white cinder block walls of the school, grinning and laughing even though he has kindergarteners crawling all over him, sitting in his lap and tucked against his sides and one in particular weaving dandelion flowers into his hair. Roy gets spotted as soon as he steps into the courtyard and Elysia bolts into his arms without hesitation, firing off questions at the speed of light. He scoops her up, sees her teacher stagger to his feet out of the corner of his eye, and then a voice that sounds like a smile is saying _You must be Uncle Roy, we’ve heard all about you,_ and Elysia is piping up, telling him all about what she did today. She points at the flowers sprinkled throughout her teacher’s hair, and informs him that _Mr. Ed is already really, really pretty, but all the playground flowers match his hair, don’t they look nice Uncle Roy?_ Mr. Ed blushes from his cheeks all the way to the tips of his ears, and Roy would pursue that but he really does need to get Elysia to the hospital to meet her new little sister Nina. He tries to forget about it, doesn’t see a reason to dwell on something that won’t happen. A week later he’s at the Hughes house making dinner so his best friends can relax for a minute, and then Maes slips a scrap of paper across the table with an evil look on his face and asks _Do I want to know why my daughter’s teacher asked me today if I would give you his number?,_ and Roy can feel his face getting hot but he picks up the paper with a smile anyway-

and-

Roy had trouble drifting after Maes was ripped out of both his mind and their jaeger mid-battle, gone in one fell swoop. Riza is a godsend, but sometimes the void in his head is just so _loud_ and the only thing that can reliably drown it out is getting into a screaming match with the short blond spitfire that runs the event prediction division of the K-Science labs. Elric’s got enough anger crammed into his body to power the shatter dome single handedly, but he’s also one of the best damn minds in the world, and that’s on top of the fact that he and his brother are legends for the work they did in _Fullmetal_ before the battle that took two of Ed’s limbs and paralyzed Al from the waist down. They nearly lost everything to the kaiju but they still came back, they still decided that they had more to give, and some days Roy can’t help but look at Ed and think _You’re everything that’s right in this world, you’re a perfect summation of the things we’re doing this to protect,_ and Ed’s eyes will meet his across the room and the phantom _zing_ of a possible connection will echo in the part of his brain that touches the drift-

and-

Roy knows the wreck is a mess because he was there when the call came in, but actually running up to the car is a different thing entirely. He reaches through the shattered window, tries to tell the man in the driver’s seat that _Everything’s gonna be okay, we’re here now,_ but the blond just reaches back, wraps his fist in Roy’s coat and snarls at him _Don’t even look at me until you get my little brother out of this car._ Roy nods, and they watch as Jean pries the passenger door off and cuts through the tangled seatbelt, helping the other boy crawl out of the wreck. Roy talks to him as Maes and Riza cut through the frame where it’s caved in and trapped him, finds out that _I’m Ed, that was my baby brother Al, and this might be the blood loss talking but you’re gorgeous._ He holds Ed’s hand all the way to the ambulance, dodging the EMT that’s hastily tying a tourniquet around his left leg, shouting for Jean to bring Al over so he can ride with his brother to the hospital. He slams the doors shut, watches it speed off, and thinks that’s the end of it until a year later when Ed shows up at the firehouse with a shiny new leg and a bouquet of flowers, grinning and asking if he’s busy on Friday night-

and-

The new junior just transferred into Roy’s calculus class and he’s got gorgeous hair and amazing eyes and it’s senior year, Roy has more important things to worry about than the new eye candy, except then he opens his mouth and it turns out he’s a _genius._ Roy’s halfway in love by the end of the class, and that’s before New Kid shows up to marching band tryouts twirling a saber like he was born with it in his hands. Roy compliments him from his spot on the podium, and New Kid smirks and calls him a bastard and offers to show him how to do it, _You know, if you think your delicate drum major hands can handle it,_ and Roy’s never been this excited for a competition season in his life, can’t wait to see Ed decked out in Amestris High’s colors, taking the field in red and black with his golden hair trailing out behind him like a banner-

and-

Roy earned the Sheriff badge on his chest when he pulled it off of Bradley’s cooling corpse after years of planning and plotting and hiding. Amestris is still small and still rowdy but it’s _better_ now, a safe place for people like Maes and Gracia Hughes, who have taken over the saloon and the schoolhouse respectively. People like Jean, who can’t ride anymore but can still outplay God at a poker table with his eyes closed and his sleeves rolled up. People like him and Riza who left their past behind for good reasons, because they’re the last ones alive who know how to make Berthold Haweye’s devastating blend of black powder, and it’s a formula they plan to take to their graves. He runs a tight operation, he takes care of his people, and when two young men ride into his town with what’s left of the Seven Sins gang on their trail he’s more than happy to help them clean up the leftovers. It’s the right thing to do if Roy doesn’t want any of Wrath’s old crew threatening his town, and besides, the younger of the two is a doctor. As small as Amestris is, Doc Marcoh could use the help, smiles when Roy tells him and says that _It’ll be nice having someone younger to teach my tricks to, to hand my duties over to when the time comes._ The wild, carefree smile that the older brother, _Call me Ed,_ throws at him over a chipped glass of the good gin that Maes distills in the back of the house has nothing to do with it. Riza raises an amused eyebrow in his direction but he really means it, _Don’t give me that look-_

and-

Roy should be packing for his trip, should be worried about getting ready for the meeting that might finally seal the merger for good, but he walks into the living room and Ed is standing by the window with a mug cradled between his hands. His eyes are closed and there’s a whisper of a smile on his face as he soaks up warmth from the sunlight and coffee both, wearing one of Roy’s shirts unbuttoned over his boxers, long enough on him to brush to top of his prosthetic. Roy has to pause in the doorway for a moment to catch his breath, because how in the world did he get _this lucky,_ what did he _do_ in another life to deserve the sight of the light reflecting off of the gold of Ed’s hair, almost exactly the same color as the ring tucked in the pocket of his robe? He was planning to do this after the trip, fully intended to wait until after the merger was finished so he wouldn’t be so busy, but this is a moment he could live in for forever with no regrets, so he doesn’t hesitate to cross the room and drop down on one knee. The look on Ed’s face when Roy asks the question is second only to the way his eyes flood with tears as he shrieks _Yes!_ and flings himself into Roy’s arms-

and-

Countless worlds spin past his eyes, hundreds and thousands and millions of different versions of Edward Elric and Roy Mustang, living and laughing and loving, each of their stories beautiful and singular and _theirs._

Roy watches as the cosmos unfurl before him and he tumbles through them gracelessly, keeping his eyes fixed on _EdwardEdwardEdward,_ his universal constant, the person he’s tethered his life to, and he pushes aside lives and worlds and stories until he finds _his_ Ed, a beacon in the maelstrom, a lighthouse guiding Roy home. 

* * *

**_(Sixth: He loves you, too.)_ **

Roy wakes up in a hospital. 

His head feels like it’s full of cotton and his mouth tastes like something died in it, and _god, how long has he been here?_ Something stirs to his right, and Roy lets his head flop to the side so he can see what it is. The top half of one Edward Elric is curled up by his arm, slumped over in his chair in a way that can’t be good for his spine. Roy takes a moment to just look at him, to take in the messy spread of his hair and the shadows under his eyes and the way his clothes are the kind of rumpled you can only really achieve by spending a few days in a waiting room. Roy smiles, squeezes the hand wrapped around his, and gets to watch as Ed snorts awake and then realizes why. 

He’s expecting to get yelled at, expecting to get a swat to the side of his head, expecting a lengthy lecture detailing all of the finer points of his idiocy.

He’s not expecting the tears that fill Ed’s eyes, he’s not expecting the fingers that curl around his shoulder and draw him in, closerclosercloser, until there’s barely a whisper of space between them, until every inhale makes their noses brush. Edward tips his head forward until their forehead’s are pressed together so that the only thing Roy can see is his eyes, pulling him in deeper so there’s no escape. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again,” Ed whispers. “I won’t survive it Roy, you were bleeding to death in my arms.”

Roy raises the hand that Ed was holding, the one without an IV attached to it, and cradles the back of Ed’s head, runs his fingers gently through tangled hair and apologizes, because what else can he do? “I couldn’t let you get hurt, I couldn’t risk that Ed, you don’t understand-”

Ed pulls back sharply, cradles Roy’s face in his hands, rubs his thumbs across cheeks that Roy can tell have gone a few days without a shave, and his voice is hoarse as he very nearly shouts. “Bullshit I don’t understand! I know _exactly_ how it feels because I had to hold your guts together until the medics got to us, I had to wait for _hours_ while they put you back together. Don’t tell me I don’t understand.” There’s fury in his eyes and he’s _beautiful,_ and Roy doesn’t know what’s in his IV but it’s what he’s going to blame for the fact that he says exactly that. 

He feels the blood drain from his face but Ed just smiles, just leans in and presses his lips to Roy’s forehead. “I love you too, you bastard,” he whispers, and Roy’s heart jerks in his chest. “I love you too.”

When Roy’s finally allowed to leave the hospital it’s Ed that wheels him out to where Riza is waiting with a car and the rest of the team. Alphonse is there too, holding a sign with big colorful writing on it that reads: _Congratulations, you were the last to know!_ He splutters, rising from his chair and ready to defend his honor, but that’s when Ed starts laughing. It’s the deep, loud, uncontrollable kind of laugh that Roy first heard that day on the roof a few months and forever ago. He turns to watch, can’t help the way his eyes are pulled to Ed like gravity, and feels his own laugh bubble up in his throat. He reaches out a hand to Ed, who meets him halfway, who pushes up close enough to tuck his head under Roy’s chin, still shaking with the force of his giggles. 

Roy just wraps his arms around him, rests his cheek against the top of Ed’s head, and smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed! If you liked this, please consider checking out my other works and subscribing for future content.
> 
> Remember that as a reader your feedback is a very important part of the creative process!!! Kudos inspire new content and comments cast the spell _Make Atlas actually write._


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